Hmm... predictions!

Chouji: Most likely dead. I think the butterfly and Shikamaru's reacton to it seal the deal there, and it serves a purpose in the story. OTOH, the series is, depsite its reminders of this being a pretty harsh world, fairly light-hearted. The Third just bought it, so it may not be time for another character death so soon, as those seem to be pretty well spaced out. Near-death may be good enough. If he does live, though, I'll consider the butterfly thing a bit of cheap trick.

Neji: Not likely to die. If Neji dies, that's a huge failure for Naruto, because Neji has repeatedly embraced Naruto's philosphy in this arc. He's going to do something unexpected (and hopefully less obvious than either yanking spiderguy out of the trees or sending chakra up the line) and pull off a victory. He'll probably collapse after that and be unable to continue. The story will probably show what happens to the rest of the gang, and not cut back to Neji's fate until the second Leaf team catches up to him. He'll be in for some down time, for sure. I'm hoping at some point for him to develop a better relationship with Hinata, and to give her the help with her skills that her father wouldn't because he was too impatient to deal with his non-genius daughter. Hinata with confidence could be quite scary. And if she ever wants to have a romance with Naruto, she's going to need some assertiveness to keep him in line.

When the group catches up with the remaining two Sound nins, I think it won't go to one on one fights. After they lose half of their team, they're going to take things more seriously, and settle in for a serious fight. So, it'll be Shikamaru, Naruto, and Kiba verus the remaining Sound nins. I think the foul-mouthed female will end up being the matchup with Shikamaru in the smarts department, and the transvestite matched up with Naruto and Kiba in the power department. Since we don't know much about the powers of the last two Sounds, it's tough to call, but I'm thinking Kiba will be taken out fairly early in the fight, with serious injuries. If Shikamaru doesn't use his shadow bind jutsu so Naruto can take out someone with his Kamehameha, I'll be a little disappointed. Something like that could get them to go into curse seal level two, which is bound to happen. Without one of Naruto's power moves combined with Shikamaru's strategy, I don't think they pose much of a threat, and seeing these guys at stage two seems to be the theme.

Sasuke: I predict...he stays in the barrel. I also predict an escape for the barrel.

Long term predictions:

I think Orochimaru may be Naruto's biggest personal battle. No matter what Naruto pulls out, he just refuses to acknowledge him, and beating an acknowledgement out of guys like that is what Naruto lives for. Something of the same could be said for Kabuto, but I think he'll live on past Orochimaru as an enemy.

The Sand genins: I think we'll see a lot more of these three in the future, probably near the end of the Orochimaru story arc. Gaara seems like he'll be the ultimate challenge to Naruto's philosphy, and not quite so easy as Neji to convert to his line of thinking, if it's even possible. Temari seems like an interesting character, and although she has a pretty wide mean streak doesn't seem to be completely evil. She has some potential as an ally of the Naruto gang. Kankuro will probably be along for the ride if there is any alliance, but grudgingly at best. As allies or enemies, these three will be back, because Gaara's story definately isn't over.

Naruto becoming Hokage: I predict that at Naruto's current level of wisdom, it will take approximately 19,458 more chapters for him to reach Hokage. Guess they intend it to be a long-running series.